Tuesday, January 12, 2010

A Couple of Kitchen Things

I love my tea kettle. When I was a young woman in the seventies, I lusted over the beautiful old copper tea kettles I'd see in magazines, so I was thrilled beyond belief when my then mother-in-law gave me a shiny new kettle as a gift. What she didn't know--being all about keeping everything squeaky clean--was that to me, my new kettle was a new baby, a smooth, spotless vessel awaiting its history; a gradual building up and breaking down of its surface. When she saw her gift a few years later she insisted I "Throw out that dirty thing!", but I didn't throw it out, it was just getting good!Years later, the blue and white ceramic handle cracked, but it still worked fine--if I held it just so--so on we went together my tea kettle and me through the years, till a few days ago, when the handle crumbled into pieces. Was it finally time to let go of my old friend? Would I like it if my loved ones let go of me because of my bumps and dings?So, I went searching through my studio and found some large glass beads that I thought might do the trick.After a quick scrub in honor of her new handle and knob, here's my tea kettle, up from the ashes.

Does anyone remember the big jars of fermented fruit--"Vintage Fruit Sauce" to my teetotaler mother, aunts and the Red Star Yeast Company--that sat proudly in big apothecary jars on many kitchen counters in the seventies? From the zingy taste of the jewel colored stuff, it was obvious that "Vintage Fruit Sauce" was mildly alcoholic, but my lady relatives flatly refused to believe they were happily consuming boozy fruit over their ice cream, in their cake...even eaten on its own by the spoonful.Yesterday I came across a 1974 copy of "Vintage Fruit Sauce", the Red Star Yeast booklet that contains the "secret" formula for starting and maintaining one's own jar of this delicious concoction, and recipes to use it in. If you're interested in starting your own batch of "Vintage Fruit Sauce", here it is: http://www.redstaryeast.com/best_recipes/211/17